Dinos track and field team off to a fast start

The Carbon Dinos recently competed in the Timpview Invitational finishing quite strong. Danielle Julian had a great performance with a sixth place finish in the 400 meter dash. Julian also competed in the 4x400 relay with Dino teammates.

The Dinos track and field team are on fire. The team has proved to be successful, placing in each meet attended. The talented team has many meets on the agenda, including the state finals to be held later this year. Several competitiors have already qualified for this event, some of which succeded at this task this past week.

The Timpview Invitational was held April 4-5, hosting 30 of Utah's 3A and 4A track and field teams, and also several teams from Colorado. The meet gave the Carbon High team an opportunity to shine brightly as most of the athletes completed some to their personal best performances.

In the girls division, Dino Melanie Madsen placed third in the 3200 meter event. Madsen completed the event in 12 minutes eight seconds which was a state qualifying time. Because of her exceptional performance, Madsen is now automatically placed in the state championships in the 3200 meter run.

In the high jump competition, Alicia Torres placed sixth with a leap of five feet, while Danielle Julian also placed sixth in the 400 meter dash.

The Lady Dino relay team also looked promising in the 4x400 relay run. Julian, Stephanie Cox, Jessica Serfustini, and Cora Broadbear had an excellent performance, however falling short of placing in the event.

Despite not making it into the final round of the discus throw by only one place, Becky Unsworth had an outstanding meet.

Up and coming athletes for the Dinos who had outstanding performances at the Timpview meet include Brittany Horrocks, Andraya Newby, Ashley Rowley, and Emily Rice.

The Dinos also had a tremendous performance by the men. Lee Prettyman placed second in the javelin with a throw of 159 feet three inches. This finish automatically qualified Prettyman in the state finals to be held in May at BYU. Prettyman has been constantly improving with each meet this season, and has successfully placed at each meet.

Seth Marsing won his heat in the boys 800 meter run in a time of 2:05.1, while Scott Terry also won his heat in the boys 3200 meter run with a time of 10:18.57 and the 1600 meter in 4:44.

The boys put together a 4x800 meter relay at the beginning of the meet. The team included Terry, Jacob Burrows, Cody Butler, and Issac Goodrich. The event is new and not many Utah high schools have teams to compete in the event. Carbon did however compete and placed sixth out of 20 teams that competed. The boys all ran personal best times, with Terry running the fastest with a time of 2:03.

Dino athletes that had good performances and have shown improvement include Nathan Swasey and Ted Donaldson in the throwing events, Bryan Stewart in the hurdles, T.J. Potts in jumping event, Joseph Palmer in sprints, and Brennan Woodward. These athletes continue to improve and are expected to be strong competitors at the next couple of meets.

As the season progresses, so does the Dino team. State qualifing rounds continue to spread throughout the tournament scene.

The Timpview meet had an extraordinary turnout. There were several heats held in all the events because of the large number of teams that participated. In the 1600 meters alone, there were 100 boys and 100 girls that competed in the event.

Not only were the numbers of participants strong, but also the times and distances in all the events. In fact, the discus throw was so competitive that the field was not set up for such long distances. The restraining net for the discus throw also found the opening to a long distance discus thrown through the netting. Unfortunately, the discus went through the net, hitting an athlete in the face. The moment was intense and the ambulance was summonsed.

Thankfully, the situation turned out better than first expected with the victim placing his hand over his face, resulting in less severe injuries. It is unknown where the athlete was from and what extend the injuries were, but it said that the victim is on the road to a speedy recovery.

The meet had so many participants, that it continued on into the dark hours of the day. The event moved slowly as competitors raced for glory.

Dino coach Elias Perez was very impressed with all the athletes and looks forward to the next meet which took place April 8 in North Sanpete.